Against Monopoly

In the spirit of April 1, Miracle Jones at Slashdot writes, "In a move that has shocked the publishing world, Judge Denny Chin has filed a brief saying that he has decided to cut the Google Book Settlement in half, letting Google host the first half of every book the company has scanned, and letting other interested stakeholders fight for the rights to the rest." link here

More compelling is Annalee Newitz' long highly critical discussion of the proposed GBS (Google Book Settlement" entitled 5 Ways The Google Book Settlement Will Change The Future of Reading link here.

The five ways are: 1. It may become harder to get information online about books from writers you love.

2. You will find yourself reading free books online, by authors who have disappeared. And Google will make money when you do.

3. Google will be competing with Apple and Amazon and everybody else to be your favorite online bookseller.

4. Libraries and bookstores will be the same thing.

5. Pulp science fiction will make a comeback in ways you might not expect.

These points don't really do justice to the content of the piece. For those hung up on copyright monopolies, the GBS won't do. For those who want to see all those books that have evaporated into the "Out of Print" ether or are in libraries with the only copy, some settlement like the one proposed makes sense. Still, it might be better if time is allowed to run and wear the two sides down to a compromise.

I wonder how many authors selected the Authors Guild to be there representative. Am i part of something like a class action suit where my representatives oppose my own interest.

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Against Monopoly

defending the right to innovate

Google Book Contract

Update and critique of the proposed GOOGLE settlement

The Authors Guild